Mike: Here is the essay I mentioned. The period described was
a fascinating time for me. I have probably left out some things. I hope
you find it of interest.

Last year, I completed my twenty-first year in the motorcycle service
business, most of which was spent in Southern California Honda dealerships.
I was hired by Honda's U.S. headquarters (American Honda) in 1980. In addition
to warranty, archive management and customer service duties, I wore a number
of hats which called upon a modicum of mechanical background and training:
I accompanied prototypes used on commercial shoots, maintained vehicles
my department was evaluating, raced a company-owned Sabre (the first at
Willow Springs) in early 1982, and I received V4 training as part of my
technician's certification.

I was on the "front line" of the V4 revolution at Honda. At the
time, I was a field rep in training, and interacted daily with all of the
players in the emerging drama that was to characterize the introduction
of Honda's new V4-based technology: dealers, service reps, engineers, product
liability people, and of course--the buying public. This was an interesting
period. Honda had just experienced a renewal of sorts. Thanks in part to
Kawasaki's Z1, few people thought of Honda as a performance motorcycle
company up to about 1979, and Honda decided it was time to change that.
The company made a concerted effort to regain a sporting reputation, and
with its reentry into world roadracing, the emergence of the NR500, CBX,
and CX500 Turbo, as well as Freddie Spencer's success with the 900F-based
1025cc machines, there was more than advertising hype in Honda's new slogan,
"Follow the Leader." Big Red was cooking once again.

The new V4 streetbikes were released against this backdrop of success,
and they were impressive monuments to Honda's engineering prowess. The
motopress gushed with enthusiasm. Honda threw parties at Disneyland and
on the Queen Mary, and it seemed as if the bonuses and congratulations
and euphoria would never end. But there was trouble in paradise. Even before
the public knew there was to be a V4 from Honda, the company had problems.
Honda had to somehow convince Can Am, which had already released a dirt
bike called the Sabre, to change its bike's name. Which it did. Virtually
overnight, the name changed to the Sonic.

In Hamamatsu, Japan, Honda has an engine factory. Before the V4s
went into production, automated equipment was put online. The V4 engine
was the first to benefit from the new technology, but unfortunately, the
result was several thousand engines whose specs--particularly valve clearances--were
less than optimum. The bikes' March 1982 arrival in the U.S., much-heralded
in spectacular dealer conventions, was painfully anticlimactic. The machines
wouldn't idle, blued pipes, and stalled chronically in traffic. Soon, Honda
was feverishly attempting to pursuade its dealers to adjust valves it had
already said did not need adjusting before the sale. The dealers were hard
to convince. Juggling radiators was a new concept, and most dealers had
been skipping the mandatory valve adjustment on all of Honda's product
for years.

Before the month was out, Sabres and Magnas were veritable pariahs,
as much with the dealers as with the buying public. Field reps learned
quickly to anticipate long lines of irate V4 owners at each stop on their
rounds, and were instructed by the home office to give each dealer a list
of things the factory said to check on problem machines. This list included
valve adjustment--still being done with only one feeler gauge, retorquing
the rocker arm shafts, increasing the spark plug gap, checking for improper
choke cable routing, straightening kinked Magna fuel pump hoses, and adjusting
float levels on all models (they came over a very lean 9mm). Few at Honda
understood what was making the bikes run so poorly, and the company was
reduced to grasping, at least for the first few months. The special warranty
contact team that I was a part of even sent out whole carburetor assemblies,
and for really bitchy customers, we authorized all sorts of unconventional
service specs, many of which were technically illegal. But still the bikes
clattered, wobbled, and got terrible fuel mileage, and easily 90% of the
reports coming into the company involved poor driveability.

In June of 1982, a Western Union mailgram was sent to each U.S.
dealer which put the official Honda stamp on the rep's 17-point checklist,
and added to it the use of two feeler gauges, enrichment of the pilot circuits,
and checking the final drive cases for factory over-filling. By this time
however machines were being returned to dealers all over the country. My
department even sent people out to get bikes which had been repurchased
outright from incensed owners. Despite this, the company was sold out of
Sabres by the end of June, and Magnas would eventually sell in figures
to make big-three auto makers jealous. It was in fact a record-breaking
year for Honda. Which was fortunate. It turned out also to be the most
expensive warranty period in the history of the motorcycle division. It
would be a very long time before the next company mega-party.

In July, the first seven of more than forty official Honda notices
were sent to dealers, to formalize and revise the provisional emergency
recommendations. These seven bulletins kicked-off an EPA and NHTSA approved
factory/dealer program addressing most of the then-known V4 problems. Along
with instructions in proper valve adjustment, the recommended float level
checks, etc., the dealers were sent stacks of adhesive-backed correction
pages to be pasted over no fewer than five pages of each of their customer's
owner's manuals. One such page detailed a new method of rear wheel installation
that had been worked out only a few months previously on the GL1100. It
was determined that the accelerated final driven flange wear evident in
both the Wing and the V4 was due to the same cause, incorrect welding of
the swingarm, the compensation for which was an unusual and painstaking
alignment of the final drive unit each time the rear wheel was removed
and replaced. The service manuals were revised as well, but unlike the
Gold Wing, which received a generous warranty extension and improved parts,
the defect in the V4 went unpublicized and is largely unknown even today,
though the special procedure is published in the two above-named factory-generated
sources, and most shops are familiar with the problem. The July 1982 update
program was a very big deal. Not only did it formally disseminate the techniques
and data found, belatedly, to be essential for good running V4s, it also
formally mandated the use of 07908-MBO0100, the long 10mm valve
adjusting screw locknut wrench, whose use was designed to prevent the locknuts
rocketing themselves through the 6mm thick valve covers. Normal tightening
wasn't enough, it was ultimately found, because the rough, "as forged,"
unmachined surface on the rocker arm was not allowing proper tightening
of the nut. The extra long wrench was the immediate fix, but by 1985, the
rocker arms in the new bikes would be milled flat under the nuts, and the
adjusting screw diameter increased, both of which increased tightening
torque and security.

In August of 1982, a new department was formed within American Honda
whose sole responsibility was to monitor new U.S. model problems and pursuade,
if possible, the appropriate people in Japan into something resembling
immediate action. The group's first official act was to ensure the availability
of V4 oil filters and service manuals, which were--five months after the
bike's release--still on backorder. Not even engine gaskets were available,
a situation that resulted in Honda having to give away a number of engines.
The next thing the QA department accomplished was to call for an immediate
retro-modification to the V4's float bowl vents inside the airbox. It was
discovered finally that one of the major causes of the engine's mediocre
performance and lean surge was due to the effect that normally varying
airbox pressures was having on the fuel levels. Mere correction of lean
levels wasn't enough, for the levels were oscillating as the engine ran.
This was another major step in the gentrification of the V4, and one for
which credit should be given the field reps, who had long since discovered
the phenomenon and had been busy screwing CR250R air bleed correction jets
into the airbox vent orifices, with remarkable success. The new edict,
however, put a more sophisticated face on the situation, largely by specifying
specially-manufactured tapered plastic restrictive inserts, Honda code
1357490. In September, VF750 Bulletin #8 formalized the procedure,
and a year later the same thing was provided for the V65.

By October of 1982, the '83 dealer convention was under way, and
Honda engineers were quietly informing us at the U.S. headquarters that
many of the improvements made in the 1983 models would be available, on
a first come-first/served-basis, to dealers whose '82 model "problem" customers
were deemed the most deserving. With the year they had just experienced,
the company had learned much about their new progeny, and one of the most
important lessons concerned the cylinder head. The '83 heads got noise-abating
reduced cam-to-bearing clearance, and the journal area under the cams was
increased. Most of these head kits went to dealers in so-called "lemon
law" states. (See note #1.)

Midway into the '83 model year, which was graced with the introduction
of the very capable Interceptor, the dust began to clear at American Honda.
The panic of '82 was over, and the motorcycle service division's new slogan,
"Out in Front and Pulling Away" significantly symbolized the feeling of
accomplishment within the company. Interceptors were winning races, and
the public was no longer mad at Honda. Warranty activity was still high,
but we were no longer getting up at dawn to field phone calls four and
more time zones away and two and a half weeks old. There were still problems,
of course. Poorly fitting Sabre sidecovers and FOIL alarm systems that
didn't work. Weaves and wobbles that hadn't as yet been solved. Mufflers
that spit out their baffles. Instruments with minds of their own (caused,
it was found, by stray inductive currents in the wiring harness affecting
the LCD). Frames which cracked under the seat area (leading to a design
change in 1985). Loose crankcase galley plugs, incorrectly made seat locks.
Oil lines whose soldered joints (the factory finally admitted) restricted
oil flow. Plus, there was still the occasional customer with a noisy engine
whose dealer didn't understand the dual-feeler procedure, and we still
sent out the occasional carb assembly, despite the special letter to dealers
categorically discontinuing the practice; we had learned in short order
that fully 90% of the carbs returned to us had merely been badly adjusted
by the dealer.

By early 1984, cam problems surfaced, though it would be another
year before Honda, pressured by the aggressive European motor press, would
admit their existence. Das Motorrad in particular was fairly blunt
about the matter. Its April 1984 feature article depicted a plastic model
of a 750 Inteceptor being rubbed into a hand-held cheese grater, with parts--most
noticably a camshaft--falling through on the other side (see
note #2) . In response, Honda's European subsidiaries were issued the
infamous special cam tool and related propaganda (see
note #3) . I was no longer with the company by this time, but back
on the service line at a Honda dealership, and I remember that everyone
I knew in the service end of the motorcycle business was seriously disappointed
with the way in which Honda responded to what all of us--and perhaps myself
the most--regarded as the "cam debacle." The blame for cam lobe pitting
was first put on the dealers, and incredibly, this remains the official
line to this day.

April also brought fuel tank recalls on all of the California
models. July gave us engine replacements on VF500 Interceptors, and August
1984 saw information come out concerning Hondaline fairing problems on
the V65 Sabre. A kit was assembled to correct the fairings and a bulletin
issued (see note # 4). The following month, dealers
heard from Honda concerning the removal of foam strips from the forks of
'83 and later V4s (Service Letter #11), and they were instructed
to eliminate V4 wobble by a special steering bearing alignment procedure,
and we learned that '84 and later models were built with ball type bearings
incorporating special friction roller cages, in an effort to reduce the
overloaded tapered bearing's tendancy to "walk" in the frame and generate
torsional forces in the fork assembly.

Finally, in June 1985, the controversial cam tool arrived at U.S.
dealerships, accompanied by Service Letter #13 specifying a new
adjustment procedure and revised idle rpm specs. At the same time, a three
year warranty extension and factory-paid replacement of pitted cams was
announced, but only for the '83 and '84 Interceptor, the focus of the Euro
press. Less than a month later, however, American Honda shot off to its
dealers an innocent little parts memo offering the buyback of any and all
V4 cams in dealer's stocks. Though this memo said nothing about warranty,
the cat was now out of the bag. All told, there had been no fewer than
eight camshaft supersessions for just the '82 and '83 Sabre and Magna,
a fact that was already clear from a careful perusal of the official parts
book, but which became really signifcant when seen in print under Honda
letterhead. Honda even addressed the '82 model's loose-as-a-goose cam bearings.
A special 315 series cam kit was put together for these bikes which consisted
of cams hand-matched to bearings (see note #5). By
1986, the excitement was mostly over. The new generation of V4s closed
the book on a period of Honda's history that the company presumably would
just as soon forget. Honda's slogan for '86, "Consistently the Leader,"
aptly symbolized the company's renewed emphasis on quality.

A lot of interesting things happen in the mass-production world.
I was fortunate, I think, to have been in the middle of one of the more
interesting and exciting times; in the thick of things, as it were, while
with American Honda (see note #6).

NOTES:

Note #1 - Basically, the various state's
"lemon laws" say repairs can't take over a certain number of days or the
customer has a right to a full refund. In states without this law, the
manufacturer has the option of repairing the vehicle over and over.

Note #2 - Although the cam is obviously from
a CX500!

Note #3 - This tool is superfluous. Yes,
it removes slop from the bearing, ostensibly making clearance adjustment
more accurate. But a number of mitigating factors, not the least of which
is the necessary higher idle specs, belie its effectiveness, and indicate
that the end product of using the tool is much tighter--not merely more
"accurate"-- valve clearances. It is typical for engines whose valve clearances
are too tight to need their idles raised. Compression checks will show
a loss also. Moreover, in August of 1985 and again in February of 1986,
Honda revealed its uncertainty regarding this "solution" to the cam problem,
by suggesting in a dealer publication that the special tool wasn't in fact
necessary to get correct valve adjustment (The Wrench newsletter,
dates as indicated).

Note #4- There was another interesting situation
regarding the Hondaline fairing for V65 Sabres. Testing by Honda Canada
showed that the bike developed a weave, at post-legal speeds, if the Hondaline
saddlebags were mounted in the absence of the fairing. At first, the decision
was made to offer the bags only as part of the fairing package, in an effort
to limit liability. Ultimately however this was deemed unfair (the fairing
by itself retailed for almost $600 U.S.), and the saddlebags were dropped
from the catalog.

Note #5 - The cam supersession breaks down
as follows:

Model

Part NumberSuffix

To Supersede

82 750 Sabre/Magna

-315

-000,-010,-030
-305,-770,-771,
-773,-774

83 750 Sabre/Magna
and 84 700 Magna

-775

-000,-010,-030
-305,-770,-771,
-773,-774

84 700 Sabre

-874

-870,-872

83-84 V65 Magna

-315

-000,-010,-020

84 V65 Sabre

-305

-000

Note #6 - To this day I am amazed at how
much access I had to virtually every corner of the company. Everything
my department did was couched in terms of "customer goodwill," a euphemism
for the securing of repurchase intention. I and my colleagues made decisions
ten and more times a day which resulted in the flow of truckloads of money
out of the company, most of the time based on strict guidelines as to how
the money was spent, but at all times with the unmistakable understanding
that every penny was somehow being invested in the public's perception
of a company which, like any mass-merchandiser, made its share of mistakes,
and unfortunately, whose public relations acumen had far to go to catch
up to its technical genius. If at times the company couldn't afford to
be second in the mass-production technological race, it certainly, it was
agreed, could afford to exert its non-technical resources in order to woo
back into the fold those who inevitably suffered from said obsession.